Furnace grate



Patented' My 4, 1926.

winnen minnaar' mann, on srocmonr, iinonann.

To'alZ wlwm it may amc Be itknown that' I, v Nr'nLD, subject of the Kin residing at Stockport, ter and Kingdom of E animation and umn 2s, lissie. semi ntl int 'res .Partnr I raies.

runnaon enarn WILLiAM Hniinn'r ghoi Great Britain,

e county of Chee-` ngland, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in and Relating to Furnace Grates, following is a s of which the pecification.

The present invention relates to improvements in the furnaces.

According formed of provided w raised in oup whereby' t be maintaine By this the tire, y bustion of regularity a plurality of e depth of the means th grates of boilers and the like to this invention a grate .bars or links is ith means to cause the links to be s in sequence along the `grate fuel bed tends to d constant throughout.

e 'appearance of holes in which not only affect eilicient cointhe fuel on the grate due to ir of draft, but also cause a more scribed with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

vFigu re 1 is a section a. fire chamber of a boiler connected Fig-2 is a sectiona together.

Y which moves 1 ment of the knobbed rol y Figs. 3-4 are ing the ino a. Wave.

Fig. 5 shows in is rovided with a gra rality of bars or links in a manner similar to a rapid destruction of the bars or links forinal elevation through showing the links l elevation on the line diagrammatic views showtion of the separate links to 'form detail the reversing means. furnace of any desired form Whatever te ycomprising a plu- 1 linked end to end chain grate; the

grate so Jformed being supported at its two The grate is longer than the disends 2, 3.v tance betw ably at least the length of an individual'link 1.

A knobbed roller 5 fre carrie. e 6

een the astenin gs 2, 3, by preferely mounted on a moving on guides 7 mounted on the wa s 8 of the furnace, 1s so arranged that when the knobbed roller moves ate, it takes up the slack o forms a hump or projection n conjunction with ler 5.

nally of the 'the' grate rotates as raises the it progresses a longitudithe move- The roller long and thereby steam may be '5 is caused to travel'lback and 4in one direction only or,

grate. Freely mounted at each end of. the.

spindle 35 is' a depending arm 36 to which is secured a perforated pipev 1 1; a liexble' to said pipe to' conduit l() beingJ connecte provide means y which cooling Water or delivered` heretor for spraying onto the under part of the said links.

The carriage 6 may move forward orjoackward with its'rollers 37 on the guides 7 with the roller 5 in raising engagement with thev grate, or it may likewise move forward or backward, with its rollers, upon the additional guides 39 with the roller 5 out of such raising engagement with the grate. ln either case, it is moved by the cable 9. Duringthis latter movementv also the pipe 1l carried by the pivotal arms 36 will ride on the supplementary guides 39 usually in front of the carriage 6.

lt Will be seen that as the raising roller 5 meets the links a, b, theseare lifted to initially present a channel or inverted V cross section (Fig. 3,) a third link: c will be raisedup on the one side until r.the second link I) is horizontal (Fig. 4), whereupon a channel of inverted U section is formed; as the motion' progresses, theiirst link @will fall back into its original osition in, the grate, While a 'fourth link (Zjwi l commence to be lifted.

lf desired, when a Wave from one end of may return7 has progressed from the rear to the front of the grate, it may returnfromthe front to the rear of the gra-te, and this motion will be such that any/holes on the irebed will be evened up. this'case, the roller forth subrelation to has progressed stantially at'alltimes in raisin one or'more links, li. e. ont e guides 7. On the other hand, the waves nua travel alternative y, more frequently in one direction than the other, so that an automatic discharge of the ash, clinker, or the like rubbish is obtained. ln the first case, the roller 5 is caused to y travel inI one direction; in raising relation 5 comprises a s indie 35 on and as the motion progresses,

vthe grate to the other, it that is to say, supposing a wave y to the links and in the other direction free of the linkswhich ,is accomplished by causing the cable 9 to move continuously in one direction. In the second case, the roller is caused, for example, to move: (1) in raisin relation to the links from front to rear of t e furnace; (2) in raising relation to the links from rear to front of the' furnace; (3) out of raising relation to the links from front to rear of the furnace; (4) in raising relation to the links from rear to front of the furnace; and thereafter to repeat this cycle, in which Waves twice move 'from rear to front', and once from. front to rear.

For these purposes, the cable, 9 and therewith the carriage 6 and roller 5 are actuated from the electric motor 27 which by belt D drives the bevel gears 45 and the drum over which the cable runs. The direction of rotation of the motor and hence the direction of movement of the lcable 9 and roller 5 are determined' by a. reversing switch 12. rl`his reversingswitchf 12 is actuated at predetermined intervalsy by the mechanism" shown on enlarged vscale in Fig. 5. This consists of aframe having journalled therein the two externally threadedspindles 20V other to an arm 43 of the lever.

and 21; The spindle 20 has keyed thereto the driving Jullcy A, While a second driv-I ing pulley is keyedfto a gear 22 and revolves freely upon the spindle 20. A gear 23 on spindle 2,1 is of the saine size as and meshes with gear 22 and is driven thereby or drives it at its own speed as Will be set forth. At the opposite end of the spindle 2() is keyed a further gear 25 which is in meshing engagement with a gear 24 keyed to spindle 21. Gear 24 has three times as many teeth as gear 25, and spindle 21 has three times the linear pitch of the spindle 20. The belt C is driven from the belt transmission D as shown in Fig. 1, and

" may drive either of pulleys A or B.

hach of the spindles 20. 21 has a respective tappet 18, 14 thereon which are held against rotation by the plate 26 and are internally threaded so as to be moved alongr the spindles duringl their rotation. This plate 26 also carries a pivot 28 for a rock lever 29 Whose arms project into actuative relation with ,the tappets 13, 14. In order to provide a rapid movement of the lever 29 when moved from position by one or the other of the tappet's 13, 14, a spring 41 is provided which is attached at one end to a point 42 of the frame and secured at the The point 42, pivot 28, and arm 43ers approximately in alincment at the greatest extension of' the spring, so that the latter Will snap the lever to its endI position after a primary actuation by either of the tappets 13, 14.

The rock lever 29 is connected by an arm 30 with a lever 32 by a pin and slot connection 3l; the lever 32 in turn moves the shifter rod 33 to right or left to move the wards the front of tlielgrate is three times.l

that taken in the `lreafrivard direction .since the carrier must tiavel: firstly, from rear to -front above the rope" drive; secondly,

and thirdly, from rear tosfront above the rope drive.

If therefore the roller is to cause a wave to pass in one direction twice as often as in the other, the roller must move three yi. e. the motor should run thr -tim'cs as long in one direction as the other, or onev Vtappet must take three times as long to inlove the rock lever 29 as the other tappct taies.

Assume that the tappet 13 is at the left hand end of the spindle 2O and tappet 14 at the right hand end of spindle 21, and the belt C is on pulley A. New as spindle 2Oy rotates, the tappet 13 moves toward the rig-ht; and .es spindle 20 through gears 25, 24 drives-spindle 21, the 'tappet 14 moves' toward the 'le-tt. This continues until tappet 13 strikes the rock lever 29 and causes it to be snapped to its opposite end position.y The belt'C is thus shifted to pulley l, and the motor 27 reversed. During the travel of tappet 13 toward the right, tappet 14 has moved eo.I j from front to rear beneatlrthe rope drive; f

times as far in one direction as the other;

the same vdistance toward the left, as spindle 20 has been turning at three times the speed' to that in which pulley A was rotated. By y gears 22, 23, spindle 21 is now rotated, and tappet 14- rnovcs toward the right at a'spjeed which is three times that at Whiclrit mm'cd toward the left. At the same time, gen rs 24 and 25 cause the spindle 20'to rotate at three times its former speed and hence toI ret-urn tappet 13 toward the left at the saine. linear speed tappet 14. Finally-'the tappet 14 encounters rock lever 29 and moves it until the spring 41 causes the reversing switch 12 and the belt shifter 33 4-,to be moved back into their initial positions. i'

Hence, the electric mbtor 27 moves in one direction for three times as long as in the opposite direction, and therewith the cable 9. During the shorter time interval, the caof the furnace, and the grate is moved. Re-

Y versalthen occurs as set forth, and the cathe furnace,-

cycles of alternately longer and shorter.

y The arra ,cessively to cause a ble 9 draws the roller 5 from front to rear and the grate is again moved during the first unit of the longer time interval; the cable 9 continues to pull in the same direction during the second time unit of this longer time interval and draws the roller idly back from rear to front without moving the grate; r

and as the cable 9 s tilll continues to pull in the same direction, during the third unit of the longer time interval, the rolle-r is drawn from front to rear andthegrate is again moved. As the roller reaches the rear of reversal again occurs, and the time intervals continue. Since the movement of the grate is de pendent upon the relative gear ratio of the s indles, it is apparent that by a Vsuitable c ange of this ratio, any desired movement may be given to the grate. It belt Cv is thrown off both 'pulleys A and B. the Vcable 9 runs in a single direction, and the grate is constantly moved from rear to front or vice versa.

p ement is applicable to any type 0f furnace where hand or automatic stoking is used either on the front or the ,rear of the furnace, or again Where the fuel is partially coked in a closed tube inthe upper part of the furnace and dropped onto the back of the grate.

I declare that what I claim is:

1. A furnace grate comprising a plurality together to form a flexito raise said links-suchump therein to' travel from end to end of the grate, and devices controlled in unison with the movementof said raising means to reverse the direction of movement of said hump..

2. A furnace grate comprising a plurality of links connected together to form a flexible chain, a freely rotatable' roller arranged to form a hump or projection of some of said links above the pthers,a carrier to support said roller, means to move said carrier from end to end of the grate tocause said hump to travel from end to end of thegrate, and devices controlled in unison with the movement of said moving means to reverse the direction of movement of said carrier.

3. A process of operating a iexible grate furnace which consists in depositing fuel uponv said grate, passing a number of waves along the 4grate from one end to the other in one direction to lift and lower and ad Vance the fuel thereon progressively, and

of links connected ble chain, means 4ity of separate elements free -end to end to form a passing a greater number o waves inthe y opposite direction to lift and. lower andl advance the fuel on the grate progressive so that the whole fuel bedA gradually moves towards that direction inwhich the larger number of waves progress. l,

' 4. A furnace grate comprising a plural, to rise and fall, means to restrain said elements from longitudinal motion 'and means to cause av to travel progressively from one end of said grate to the other a in one direction than in the other.

hump 7 larger number lof times 5. A furnace grate'comprising a plurality I of narrow bars, means to pivot said bars end to end to form a flexible sheet, means to liX the front and-back edges to cause a hump to travel from front to back edges of said sheet a plurality of times in one direction and thereafter to cause said hump to travel a plurality of times in the opposite direction.

6. A grate comprising a plurality of nar-` row bars, means interconnecting said bars determined length, means fixing the front and back edges of said sheet at a fixed distance apart less than the length of the sheet, means to take up the excess of length of the iexible sheet over the distance of separation length of its end supports, so that said excessy is displaced from the horizontal plane to form a hump, and means to.caus'e the lhump to travel from onel end of the grate to the other.

7. A flexible grate comprising a plurality ofseparate links, means to pivot said links end to end to form a flexible sheet, means to secure the front and back edges of said sheet at a fixed distance apart less thanv the length of the sheet, means to take up the4 slack in said sheet -by successively raising the firstencountered end of a link, bringing the link to a horizontal position, and thereafter successively lowering the first-encountered end and the lastencounteredrend of the link and to so lift and lowerv the links in sequence from one end of the grate to the other.

S. A exible chain grate comprising links pivoted end to end, and means to move said links in turn firstly into a position inclined to the normal plane of the grate,

iiexible sheet of a presecondly L of said sheet, means into a position in' a plane parallel to the, 'Y

plane of the grate, clined to the normal plane but opposite to their first inclination, and ourthly back into the normal` plane or the grate.v

In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my namethis 5th day of March, 1920.

WILLIAM HERBERT NIELD.

thirdly into a position in-' 

